Les Paul pickguard noise and stripped screw fix

[tinman1]

Greetings all,

 

Just picked up a lovely used Les Paul studio in ebony on ebay (UK) for the very reasonable price of £500. Great condition.

 

However, never having owned a Les Paul before the first thing that annoyed me immediately was the floating pickguard which palpably moved and often clicked when resting my little finger on the guard. The clicking was audible during acoustic/ quiet playing and coupled with the movement quite annoying.

 

In the process of trying to tighten the pickguard screws and trying out the guitar without the pickguard I managed to strip the bottom screw hole on the undersurface of the guitar.

 

Having used several forums for advice I thought I'd add my experience to the other threads on the web for folks with this problem in the future.

 

1) Clicky pickguard fixed easily by applying a tiny amount of superglue to the undersurface of the central nut (with the guard removed and nowhere near the guitar of course) and attaching a spare schaller felt ring to the undersurface of the nut. It's one of the felt rings you get with some schaller straplocks. On reassembly the felt just contacts the guitar top so stabilises the guard and prevents excessive pickguard movement and noise during playing. This will also protect the laquer from bare metal.

 

2) I can confirm that the cocktail stick/ wood glue method fixes a stripped screw hole definitively... Blunt end of cocktail stick passed into hole and marked where flush with guitar top. End of cocktail stick cut to size at the mark. Cut piece of stick rolled in a small amount of evostick wood adhesive and inserted into the stripped hole (stick narrower than hole so glue taking up the slack). Small amount of excess glue wiped from guitar top. Left for 2 hours to set then screw replaced directly into filled hole without redrilling (wood soft enough to accept screw). Screw now snugs up to finger-tight very nicely and pickguard is once again securely attached.

 

Hope this helps future LP newbies with the same problems!

[capmaster]

Hello tinman1,

 

nice to meet you here, and thanks for your contribution. Congrats on your buy of a Gibson Les Paul Studio.

 

I used the cocktail stick method to mount Strap Locks onto L6S guitars but without glue. I just didn't want to set wood plugs. I think if ever occurred trouble with my Les Paul Traditional 2013's pickguard, I would leave it off despite the finish aleady marred by the nut. It is the only Les Paul of mine which came with the pickguard already mounted.

[tinman1]

Agree re wood plugs- best to retain the wood and fill the hole rather than remove more wood!

 

If it happened to your pickguard and you wanted to keep it I'd recommend the above with wood glue, really easy to do cleanly without causing more damage and screw as secure as it should be.